The national baseball team lost to defending champion Japan 5-3 on Tuesday to finish in second place at the World Baseball Classic 2009.

It was the fifth time the rivals were pitted against one another in this year’s WBC, with this one needing 10 innings to determine the outcome.

The Koreans tied it up 3-3 in the bottom of the ninth against the defending champs at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The game then went to extra innings with Japanese right fielder Ichiro Suzuki smacking a two-run single up the middle in the top of the tenth to break the tie and end Korea’s WBC title run.

In the last WBC in 2006, Team Korea made it to the quarter-finals. The team will return home Wednesday.